35th Anniversary year
2016 saw EnTEEtainment celebrate 35 years of work in the live events industry. We decided to hold a party at Mary Janes near the Tower of London and over 200 of our Industry colleagues came to support us. It was humbling to ‘feel the love in the room’ and it was a very special night – with more than a few sore heads the next morning… (links to press releases / google coverage)
Read more about it the night here.

Life RX launch
In February – EnTEEtainment was proud to have been of service to ‘The Department’ – a truly innovative immersive talent agency – in assisting with the launch of the Lexus RX to international journalists at a spectacular ‘theatrical event’ in Central London.
Have a look at a taster video for the experience below.

Baby show – new set
February, May and October – working alongside our colleague Sean Canning at Eight Freestyle, we handled the production of the ‘Catwalk stage’ at the Baby show, promoted by Exhibition supremo’s Clarion Events Ltd. However, this year we were delighted to be able to unveil a new stage set at the shows in ExCel, The NEC and Olympia.

R1BW – beautiful setting of Powderham Castle
May saw the Radio 1 Big Weekend staged within the breathtakingly beautiful Powderham Castle Estate. Having lived in South Devon for several years back in the 1970’s – Dick was particularly thrilled to return to the West Country and lead the production delivery team for such a fantastic event in such a stunning location.

Elton John at Longleat
In June – on behalf of Promoters Marshall Arts – we handled the site management for an Elton John concert at Longleat as part of the Safari Park’s 50th anniversary celebrations. The music legend performed an open air concert in front of 15,000 people set against the famous backdrop of Longleat House.

Rochester Castle – a special Military concert
July once again saw the EnTEEtainment team deliver the Castle Concerts series at Rochester Castle including performances from Status Quo and Will Young together with a Soul Legends spectacular featuring Clem Curtis, George McCrae, Jimmy James and Gwen Dickey. Instead of the annual and much loved traditional Saturday night Castle Proms with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, this year saw a special ‘Military Proms’ concert celebrating Sapper 300, the tercentenary anniversary of the formation in 1716 of the ‘Corps of Engineers’. The special gala concert at Rochester Castle saw the combined Bands of the Royal Engineers and the Countess of Wessex String Orchestra performing together to the delight of the audience.

EDC @ Milton Keynes Bowl
July also saw us handling the technical production of EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) at Milton Keynes Bowl on behalf of one of our major clients ‘Festival Republic’ alongside Los Angeles based Festival producers ‘Insomniac’. EDC UK returned to Milton Keynes Bowl for a one-day electronic dance music party that is unlike any other with the very biggest EDM and house DJs in the world performing in front of 50,000 dance music fans. The main stage was some 70m wide and incorporated a huge Owl, a Dragon and two ‘Guardians’ as well as a massive 400m2 LED screen and a fully functioning ‘waterfall’! It was a great challenge to be able to combine such a huge stage based construction with so much creativity and artistic design. Unlike conventional stages the only ‘on stage roof’ comprised of a small perspex canopy covering the actual DJ performer and their equipment with the rest of the construction acting as a supportive ‘skeletal’ frame for the set & scenic panels and cloths, inflatables, lighting, audio, LED screens, laser and pryo effects’.

Reading Festival
The bank holiday weekend in August saw Dick continue with his Main Stage Production Management role on behalf of Festival Republic at their flagship event – the Reading Festival. With a capacity of 90,000, an eclectic line-up of music and an impressive roster of headliners, Reading Festival has become a key weekend in the UK festival calendar. With performances from Foals, Disclosure, Biffy Clyro, Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, to mention but a few, this year’s event boasted one of the most diverse line-ups to date and spanned a host of different genres, including rock, alternative, pop, grime, rap and punk. Dick and Frankie Tee worked alongside colleague Andy Head to handle the technical advancing and on site delivery of the Main Stage production at Reading. This year, Festival Republic introduced a really interesting format to the festival, in the shape of a double headliner arrangement for two of the three nights. The acts closing the shows, and the bands playing immediately before them were effectively treated as co-headliners, which is testament to the calibre of bands that the festival is attracting. With the headliners bringing big stage shows and impressive production, this format challenged the festival production team to accommodate two headline size performances one after the other.

Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park – Elton John
In September we returned to Hyde Park with the BBC Proms and Radio 2 Live concerts. The later gave us another opportunity to work with the amazing Elton John as he headlined a day of performances including sets from Travis, Andreya Triana, Jamie Lawson, Gregory Porter, Status Quo and Madness – in front of a crowd of 50,000 in one of London’s most famous locations.

AH took a step back
This autumn saw the end of an era with Amy giving up full time work to take time out to spend it with her young son Lewis. She has been a highly valued member of our team for some 12 years and although she may have taken a step back from the day to day operation she will still continue to have an involvement in some of our forthcoming shows and events, albeit on more of a part-time basis.
You can read both Amy and Dicks statements here.

Dick Tee – Outstanding Contribution to Festivals Award
The year culminated in a major award being presented to Dick Tee.
‘…When I heard that I was to be honoured with the ‘Outstanding Contribution Award’ I was extremely surprised – totally delighted, but surprised. In the words of Jamie Lawson ‘I wasn’t expecting that’…. I am still not convinced that my input into the UK Festival Industry is really worthy of such a huge accolade. However, it was a fantastic night at the iconic Roundhouse when I accepted ‘my gong’ in front of my family, friends, work colleagues and associates…’
Full story can be found here.

Today the UK Festival Awards announced that Dick Tee will be given the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Festivals’ Award at this years annual event.

“I am shocked but hugely honoured to have been announced as the recipient of the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Festivals Award’ at the forthcoming 2016 UK Festival Awards. To have my contribution and input to this amazing Industry recognised by colleagues and peers is truly humbling and I am so grateful for this fantastic accolade.

We wanted to share the news that once we get to the end of our busy summer season in the middle September, Amy will be giving up full time work and taking time out to spend it with her son Lewis. It is incredible to think that he is now a year old and we are thrilled that Amy will have the opportunity over the coming months to be more of a ‘Mum’ and less of a ‘workaholic’…. She has been a highly valued member of our team for some 12 years and whilst she is no longer going to be a permanent member of staff, she is still very much part of the EnTEEtainment family and we are sure you will see her across various of our projects in the future.